There is a trend in the death care industry towards “personalization”—the personalizing of funeral products and funeral, memorial or other services purchased for the deceased, to provide a more meaningful experience for the family and friends of the deceased. Oftentimes, there is a desire on the part of the deceased's family and loved ones to memorialize the faithfully departed. This may manifest itself in several ways such as, for example, displaying various religious or sentimental items close to or on the casket during viewing of the deceased or even placing items in the casket prior to interment of the casket above or below ground. The display and/or storage of various items of personalty near or in caskets has existed as a means to memorialize the deceased.
One of the earlier attempts at providing a means of personalizing or customizing a casket to the deceased may be seen with reference to the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,054 titled Casket Shelf. This patent discloses a casket shelf which is mounted to the dish assembly of the head end cap when the head end cap is in the open position, such as during viewing of the deceased. The shelf provides a surface for supporting and displaying articles of religious or personal significance to the deceased.
A more recent innovation may be seen with reference to the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,124 titled Casket Having Memorabilia Compartment. Caskets embodying one embodiment of the invention of the '124 patent have a drawer built into the foot end lid in which keepsakes of the deceased can be stored and displayed, and are commercially available as the MemorySafe® line of caskets from Batesville®. Until the innovative casket of the '124 patent, caskets did not have any designated, easily accessible receptacle or compartment for either the display of personal effects of the deceased therein or the inclusion therein of mementos of memorialization by the deceased's family and friends. Prior attempts at solving this shortcoming had generally taken the form of the placement of a small memento box into the casket alongside the deceased. However, such memento boxes often appeared as an afterthought, simply placed alongside the deceased in the casket somewhat haphazardly. The '124 patent solved this shortcoming, as it provided the first casket with a memorabilia compartment integral to the casket for displaying and storing mementos and other items of memorabilia.
A further, and even more recent, innovation in the area of casket personalization may be seen with reference to the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 6,715,190 for Memorialization Casket. This patent discloses an alcove structure formed in the cap panel in the underside of the head end lid, for receiving ornaments or memorabilia when the lid is in the open position during visitation or during a funeral or other memorial service, as a means of memorializing the deceased.
Yet another recent innovation in the area of casket personalization may be seen with reference to the assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,237,202 and 6,446,315. These patents disclose a dish assembly, mounted to the casket cap, including a cap panel having an opening that accepts a cap panel insert that is removably received in the cap panel opening. The cap panel insert can be personalized to the deceased. The cap panel insert can be removed from the cap subsequent to a memorial service for the deceased and retained by the loved one of the deceased as a memorial to the deceased.
Despite the advancements made in the area of personalization of caskets as demonstrated by the products discussed above, there remains room for improvement.